If you’ve been following me along on social media for some time now, you might remember our little kitchen fiasco we had back in December. I was 36 weeks pregnant when we had a big pipe leak under our island. After a visit from a water remediation team and a call to our insurance carrier, our kitchen was ripped out that following day.
After three months of living in an Airbnb with a newborn, and nearly 9 months of construction in our house, our kitchen renovation is *finally* done! And we absolutely love it.
Cabinetry
We worked with a local San Diego supplier called DJ Home Plus for kitchen cabinetry. Despite not going fully custom with our cabinet design, we were still able to design a layout that fit our unique needs and it opened up a lot of room in our budget.
We chose a light oak color from his selection called Whiskey Royale. The quality is amazing for the price we paid and we’re thrilled with how well it compliments the countertops.
Countertops and Backsplash
The natural stone we chose for our countertops is called Taj Mahal – a true quartzite that is durable and timeless. We decided to spend some extra money and do slabs instead of backsplash and we couldn’t be happier with our decision. Going with slabs over tiled backsplash truly makes the kitchen and has brightened it up tremendously (and it makes cleaning a breeze.)
Like most other natural stone, Taj Mahal comes in a variety of shades that are usually more cool-toned or warm-toned, and some with more natural veining than others. So physically going to the warehouse to pick out the slabs (and making sure they came from the same batch) was key. We opted for slabs that weren’t too drastic with the veining and leaned a little more warm than cool to bring some warmth to the room.
Lighting
Our kitchen lighting was probably the biggest issue we’ve had since moving into this house. Our kitchen barely had any natural light and our overhead lighting was way too harsh. Finding pendant lights and a chandelier that were both timeless and provided the lighting we wanted was a tough task.
After a few purchases (and painful returns) later, we went with Rejuvenation for our lighting needs. We got two Theo Pendants in a beautiful moss green for our island and Stark Linear Chandelier for our dining table. They were exactly what we were looking for.
Flooring
Our previous flooring was great quality, but wayyy too dark for our liking. Budgeting for quality engineered hardwood flooring was one of the things we prioritized in this project and we’re happy we did.
We saw a sample of this flooring and was immediately sold. It’s a wide plank European Oak hardwood floor with a light wire brush from the company Provenza. The exact product: the Affinity collection in color Charmed.
Plumbing + Sink Details
Picking out the kitchen plumbing was one of the highlights of our kitchen project. Our faucet choice: Kohler Artifacts Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet in polished nickel. I know some people hate mixed metals in a kitchen, but I’m here for it – and polished nickel is the perfect compliment to the aged brass cabinet hardware.
One of the things we wanted to add was a beverage faucet that attached to our reverse osmosis system under the kitchen sink. We bought the matching Kohler Artifacts Beverage Faucet which complimented the space perfectly. Having the faucet – rather than using an annoying switch button attached to the main faucet – has been a game changer for quick glasses of water and baby bottles. If you’re reading this and thinking about getting a filtered beverage faucet installed, just do it.
As for the sink, we wanted something big. Specifically, an over-sized farmhouse sink that we could fit our baby (and our fur baby) in for a little rinse.
We saw the Kohler Whitehaven Farmhouse Sink at one of their showrooms and knew that was the one. Its heavy, durable, exactly what we were looking for.
Cabinets & Hardware
We stuck with Rejuvenation for our hardware to match our lighting selections. For all the pull-out drawers we went with the Vernon Offset Drawer Pulls in Aged Brass, and for the cabinets we used the Wren Cabinet Knobs in Aged brass.
While I love the look of the knobs, I will say the cornered edges are a bit sharp. We’ve gotten used to them (and still love them), but we’d probably go with the round back plates rather than square in the future.
Appliances
- Refrigerator: Thermador 36″ Builtin French Door
- Range: 36” Pro Harmony® Standard Depth
- Hood/Vent: Zephyr 36″ Monsoon
- Wall Oven: Masterpiece® Single Wall Oven 30”
- Speed Oven: Masterpiece® Speed Oven 30” Stainless Steel
- Dishwasher: Star Sapphire® Dishwasher24” Custom Panel Ready
- Wine Fridge: Freedom® Built-in Wine Cooler with Glass Door
Tip: holidays are a great time to order appliances, and typically the more you get the more you save. We ordered everything in January when they were having a special on Thermador, otherwise we would have probably gone with KitchenAid for our needs. We got a great deal on stacking appliances and ended up getting our dishwasher for free! Don’t be afraid to get quotes from different places, we saved a ton of money by doing so.
Our Beverage Bar
This was, by far, the hardest part of our kitchen to plan out. We had a really awkward buffet area that my husband and I didn’t know what to do with. We also have these two small windows that don’t provide much light and it wasn’t within our budget to create a new larger window for the space. After going back and forth on drawings, we decided to make this a little “beverage bar” for all of our alcohol and coffee gadgets.
We lined the entire wall with Bedrosian Cloé 5×5 Ceramic Tile in white and installed two floating shelves that are the same oak as our cabinetry. We also installed a large wine fridge to the right of the cabinets and it somehow fit the space perfectly.
Before & Afters
These photos were from our home’s original listing (we since then took down the awkward peg wall… but it still didn’t look much better.) Take a look and let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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